Uzbekistan in Central Asia is the 'cotton colony' of the Soviet Union. Seventy per cent of the total output of cotton is produced here. On a visit to a collective farm in the Fergana Valley meet one of the brigade leaders, Inyamin Rakhimov, and his family, at the height of the cotton harvest. The need to meet the targets set by the state planning agency, Gosplan, can lead to short cuts, like the use of lethal chemicals to defoliate the cotton plants. (e)
